Official: Iran Seizes 12,000 tons of Illicit Drugs in 4 Decades

"3,300km of different physical and electronic barriers have been created and 50,000 gangs and groups which distributed drugs were annihilated. Some 100,000 vehicles (carrying drugs) have been seized and 12,000 tons of narcotics discovered and seized in the past 40 years (after the Islamic Revolution in Iran)," General Momeni said on Monday.

He added that 3,800 security and police forces have been martyred in the past 40 years while fighting against drug traffickers.

Iran is in the forefront of the fight against drug trafficking and thousands of Iranian police forces have been so far martyred to protect the world from the danger of drugs.

The Iranian anti-narcotic police have always staged periodic operations against drug traffickers and dealers, but reports - which among others indicate an improved and systematic dissemination of information - reveal that the world's most forefront and dedicated anti-narcotic force (as UN drug-campaign assessments put it) has embarked on a long-term countrywide plan to crack down on the drug trade since more than a decade ago.

In relevant remarks in May, Iranian Police Chief Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari had described Iran as a pioneering state in campaign against drug trafficking, and said, "We have declared our information and needs to the international organizations and I should say that we have not pinned hope on their aid."

"We do not have hope that the international organizations can seriously confront" the cultivation and production of narcotics in Afghanistan, General Ashtari said.

The Iranian police officials maintain that drug production in Afghanistan has undergone a 50-fold increase since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.

Afghan and western officials blame Washington and NATO for the change, saying that allies have "overlooked" the drug problem since invading the country 18 years ago.

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